The Doctrine of Persecution
This page contains answers to:
QUESTION # 1: "Please explain your understanding of the biblical Doctrine of Persecution, and explain the relationship of this doctrine to the Church of Wells. Please also provide specific examples of how the Church of Wells has been persecuted prior to April 1, 2014." (Video)
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In answer to the aforementioned question, hear the voices of Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, Matthew Henry, George Horne, Horatius Bonar, George Whitefield, A.W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, Paul Washer, and more...
Charles Spurgeon
“There has been no single Church of God existing in England for these fifty years which has had to pass through more trial than we have done…scarce a day rolls over my head in which the most villainous abuse, the most fearful slander is not uttered against me both privately and by the public press; every engine is employed to put down God’s minister – every lie that man can invent is hurled at me… They have not checked our usefulness as a Church; they have not thinned our congregation; that which was to be but a spasm – an enthusiasm which it was hoped would only last an hour – God has daily increased; not because of me, but because of that gospel which I preach…” - Charles Spurgeon
I think of C.H. Spurgeon when he was lonely and maligned during the downgrade controversy. I think of the words that he wrote while commenting on Psalm 7:1-2 in the Treasury of David, “the wounds of a sword will heal, but the wounds of the tongue cut deeper than the flesh, and are not soon cured. Slander leaves a slur, even if it be wholly disproved. Common fame, although notoriously a common liar, has very many believers. Once let an ill word get into men's mouths, and it is not easy to get it fully out again. The Italians say that good repute is like the cypress, once cut, it never puts forth leaf again; this is not true if our |
character be cut by a stranger's hand, but even then it will not soon regain its former verdure. Oh, 'tis a meanness most detestable to stab a good man in his reputation, but diabolical hatred observes no nobility in its mode of warfare. We must be ready for this trial, for it will surely come upon us. If God was slandered in Eden, we shall surely be maligned in this land of sinners. Gird up your loins, ye children of the resurrection, for this fiery trial awaits you all.” And again at another time, Spurgeon said, “When we are slandered it is a joy that the Lord knows us, and cannot be made to doubt our uprightness he will not hear the lie against us, but he will hear our prayer against the lie.”
John Bunyan
I think of John Bunyan when, as he said, “But when Satan perceived that his thus tempting and assaulting me, would not answer his design, to wit, to overthrow the ministry, and make it ineffectual, as to the ends thereof, then he tried another way, which was, to stir-up the minds of the ignorant and malicious to load me with slanders and reproaches: now therefore, I may say, that what the devil could devise, and his instruments invent, was whirled up and down the country against me, thinking, as I said, that by that means they should make my ministry to be abandoned.
It began therefore to be rumored up and down among the people, that I was a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman, and the like. – To all which I shall only say, God knows that I am innocent. But as for mine accusers, let them provide themselves to meet me before the tribunal of the Son of God, there to answer for all these things, with all the rest of their iniquities, unless God shall give them repentance for them, for the which I pray with all my heart. |
But that which was reported with the boldest confidence, was, that I had my misses, my whores, my bastards, yea, two wives at once, and the like. Now these slanders, with the other, I glory in, because but slanders, foolish or knavish lies, and falsehoods cast upon me by the Devil and his seed. And should I not be dealt with thus wickedly by the world, I should want one sign of a saint, and a child of God. “Blessed are ye,” said the Lord Jesus, “when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
These things, therefore, upon mine own account, troubled me not; no, though they were twenty times more than they are. I have a good conscience, and whereas they speak evil of me, as an evil-doer, they shall be ashamed that falsely accuse my good conversation in Christ.
So then, what shall I say to those that have thus bespattered me? Shall I threaten them? Shall I chide them? Shall I flatter them? Shall I entreat them to hold their tongues? No, not I. Were it not for that these things make them ripe for damnation that are the authors and abettors, I would say unto them “Report it,” because it will increase my glory.
Therefore I bind these lies and slanders to me as an ornament; it belongs to my Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached, and reviled; and since all this is nothing else, as my God and my conscience do bear me witness, I rejoice in reproaches for Christ’s sake.
Now, as Satan endeavored, by reproaches and slanders to make me vile among my countrymen, that, if possible, my preaching might be made of none effect; so there was added hereto, a long and tedious imprisonment, that thereby I might be frightened from the service of Christ, and the world terrified and made afraid to hear me preach. Of which I shall in the next place give you a brief account.” (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners)
These things, therefore, upon mine own account, troubled me not; no, though they were twenty times more than they are. I have a good conscience, and whereas they speak evil of me, as an evil-doer, they shall be ashamed that falsely accuse my good conversation in Christ.
So then, what shall I say to those that have thus bespattered me? Shall I threaten them? Shall I chide them? Shall I flatter them? Shall I entreat them to hold their tongues? No, not I. Were it not for that these things make them ripe for damnation that are the authors and abettors, I would say unto them “Report it,” because it will increase my glory.
Therefore I bind these lies and slanders to me as an ornament; it belongs to my Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached, and reviled; and since all this is nothing else, as my God and my conscience do bear me witness, I rejoice in reproaches for Christ’s sake.
Now, as Satan endeavored, by reproaches and slanders to make me vile among my countrymen, that, if possible, my preaching might be made of none effect; so there was added hereto, a long and tedious imprisonment, that thereby I might be frightened from the service of Christ, and the world terrified and made afraid to hear me preach. Of which I shall in the next place give you a brief account.” (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners)
Matthew Henry
"Religion and its serious professors have been always and every where evil spoken of. Though there is nothing in religion but what is very good, and deserves our highest regards, both as it is perfective of our natures and as it is subservient to our truest and highest interests; yet this sect, as its enemies are pleased to call it, is every where spoken against, Acts 28:22." -Matthew Henry
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George Horne
"Slander and calumny must always precede and accompany persecution, because malice itself cannot excite people against a good man, as such; to do this, he must first be represented as a bad man. What can be said of those who are busied in this manner, but that they are a “generation of vipers,” the brood of the old “Serpent,” that grand accuser and calumniator of the brethren, having under their tongues a bag of “poison.” conveying instant death to the reputation on which they fasten. Thus David was hunted as a rebel, Christ was crucified as a blasphemer, and the primitive Christians were tortured as guilty of incest and murder." - George Horne
Horatius Bonar
"Some one, then, must undertake the ungracious task of probing and laying bare the evils of the age; for men must not be allowed to congratulate themselves that all is well. If others will not, he will. If others shrink from the obloquy of such a work, he will not. He loves the age too well; he loves his nation too well; he loves his fellow-men too well. They may upbraid him; they may call him a misanthropist, or a prophet of evil; they may ascribe his warnings to the worst of motives, such as pride, or arrogance, or self-esteem, or malice, or envy; but he will give no heed to these unjust insinuations. He will prefer being thus misunderstood and maligned, to allowing men to precipitate themselves upon a ruin which they see not. Rather than that they should perish, he will allow his own good name to be spoken against. He will risk every thing, even the hatred of brethren, rather than withhold the warning." -Horatius Bonar
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George Whitefield
"It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher" - George Whitefield
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"What say you? Are you resolved to live godly in Christ Jesus, notwithstanding the consequence will be, that you must suffer persecution? You are beginning to build; but have you taken the Lord's advice, to "sit down first and count the cost?" Have you well weighed with yourselves that weighty declaration, "He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me;" and again, "Unless a man forsake all that he has he cannot be My disciple?" Perhaps some of you have great possessions; will not you go away sorrowful, if Christ should require you to sell all that you have! Others of you again may be kinsmen, or some way related, or under obligations, to the high priests, or other great personages, who may be persecuting the Church of Christ: What say you? Will you, with Moses, "rather choose to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season?"
Perhaps you may say, "my friends will not oppose me." That is more than you know: in all probability your chief enemies will be those of your own household. If therefore they should oppose you, are you willing naked to follow the naked Christ? And to wander about in sheep-skins and goats-skins, in dens and caves of the earth; being afflicted, destitute, tormented, rather than not be Christ's disciples? You are now all following with zeal, as Ruth and Orpah did Naomi, and may weep under the word; but are not your tears, crocodile tears? |
And, when difficulties come, will you not go back from following the Lord, as Orpah departed from following Naomi? Have you really the root of grace in your hearts? Or, are you only stony-ground hearers? You receive the word with joy; but, when persecution arises because of the Word, will you not be immediately offended?
Be not angry with me for putting these questions to you. I am jealous over you, but it is with a godly jealousy: for, alas! how many have put their hands to the plough, and afterwards have shamefully looked back? I only deal with you, as our Lord did with persons that said, "Lord, I will follow you wherever you will. The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man, (says he) has not where to lay His head." What say you? Are you willing to endure hardness, and thereby approve yourselves good soldiers of Jesus Christ? You now come on foot out of towns and villages to hear the word, and receive me as a messenger of God: but will you not by and by cry out, Away with him, away with him; it is not fit such a fellow should live upon the earth?
Perhaps some of you, like Hazael, may say, "Are we dogs, that we should do this?" But, alas! I have met with many unhappy souls, who have drawn back unto perdition, and have afterwards accounted me their enemy, for dealing faithfully with them, though once, if it were possible, they would have plucked out their own eyes, and have given them unto me.
Sit down, therefore, I beseech you, and seriously count the cost, and ask yourselves again and again, whether you count all things but dung and dross, and are willing to suffer the loss of all things, so that you may win Christ, and be found in Him."
- Whitefield's Sermons (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library). Sermon: "Persecution, Every Christians's Lot."
Be not angry with me for putting these questions to you. I am jealous over you, but it is with a godly jealousy: for, alas! how many have put their hands to the plough, and afterwards have shamefully looked back? I only deal with you, as our Lord did with persons that said, "Lord, I will follow you wherever you will. The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man, (says he) has not where to lay His head." What say you? Are you willing to endure hardness, and thereby approve yourselves good soldiers of Jesus Christ? You now come on foot out of towns and villages to hear the word, and receive me as a messenger of God: but will you not by and by cry out, Away with him, away with him; it is not fit such a fellow should live upon the earth?
Perhaps some of you, like Hazael, may say, "Are we dogs, that we should do this?" But, alas! I have met with many unhappy souls, who have drawn back unto perdition, and have afterwards accounted me their enemy, for dealing faithfully with them, though once, if it were possible, they would have plucked out their own eyes, and have given them unto me.
Sit down, therefore, I beseech you, and seriously count the cost, and ask yourselves again and again, whether you count all things but dung and dross, and are willing to suffer the loss of all things, so that you may win Christ, and be found in Him."
- Whitefield's Sermons (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library). Sermon: "Persecution, Every Christians's Lot."
A.W. Tozer
A prophet is one who knows his times and what God is trying to say to the people of his times. Today we need prophetic preachers; not preachers of prophecy merely, but preachers with a gift of prophecy. The word of wisdom is missing. We need the gift of discernment again in our pulpits. It is not ability to predict that we need, but the anointed eye, the power of spiritual penetration and interpretation, the ability to appraise the religious scene as viewed from God's position, and to tell us what is actually going on. Where is the man who can see through the ticker tape and confetti to discover which way the parade is headed, why it started in the first place and, particularly, who is riding up front in the seat of honor? What is needed desperately today is prophetic insight. Scholars can interpret the past; it takes prophets to interpret the present. Learning will enable a man to pass
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judgment on our yesterdays, but it requires a gift of clear seeing to pass sentence on our own day. One hundred years from now historians will know what was taking place religiously in this year of our Lord; but that will be too late for us. We should know right now. If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation it must be by other means than any now being used. If the church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting. Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will be not one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the one and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath. We need to have the gifts of the Spirit restored again to the church, and it is my belief that the one gift we need most now is the gift of prophecy. - A.W. Tozer, from "Of God and Men"
“The church has lost her testimony. She has no longer anything to say to the world. Her once robust shout of assurance has faded away to an apologetic whisper. She who one time went out to declare now goes out to inquire. Her dogmatic declaration has become a respectful suggestion, a word of religious advice, given with the understanding that it is after all only an opinion and not meant to sound bigoted.” – A.W. Tozer
"The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it." - A.W. Tozer
Leonard Ravenhill
“My main ambition in life is to be on the devil’s most wanted list.” What did Ravenhill mean? Ravenhill understood that, to the degree one is effective in confronting sin and convicting consciences through the empowerment of the Holy Ghost, there would be a proportionate onslaught of persecution and resistance. In this vein Ravenhill said, “In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery”. The prophet is God’s detective seeking for lost spiritual treasures. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by the measure of his unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him. He has no price tags. He is totally “otherworldly”. He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile. He marches to another drummer!” - Leonard Ravenhill
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“A lot of people want Jesus to come to day because they’re scared stiff of suffering, that’s why. After all the Church has been getting lashed and tormented and stripped and prostituted. And the judgment is gonna fall if we don’t get revival, and maybe, it is not an alternative of Christ or chaos but Christ and chaos, not revival or revolution but revival and revolution, not revival without concentration camps but may be the only place you’ll get it is in concentration camps.” – Leonard Ravenhill
“Salvation of America
does not depend upon the White House it depends upon God’s House, and before
God does anything He will clean up the Church. When He was on earth He cleaned
up the Temple, when He comes again He will clean up the pulpit - Judgment must
begin at the House of God; judgment must begin with the preachers! I think the
most awesome task in the world tonight is not to be the President of the United
States or the King of an Empire, but to be a man who stands between a Living
God and a dying people. I’d like to send a notice to all the deacons of every
Church in America: ‘If your preacher doesn’t weep over the congregation - weep
over your preacher!’” – Leonard Ravenhill
"Suffering" - The Marks of God's Approval
by Leonard Ravenhill
by Leonard Ravenhill
Are we willing to suffer?
"..we raise our hats to the martyrs, and we thank God for the last drop of their blood but we won't give Him the first drop of ours." In what circumstance will we suffer? "What about when God does it with you? In your Church, people begin to ridicule you... but that's the way you make character." To what end will we suffer? "If you're going to be a prophet you'll have to preach repentance, and before you start - dedicate your head to heaven." "You get filled with the Holy Ghost, and watch it, where will you go? You'll go where those other men have gone... they've put them in prison." "He went to cities and he had one of two things: Revival or Riot" Who is suffering? "There isn't a prophet in America today that I know of." "Immediately he takes up that mantle of prophesy - he gets the full load of the love of God and the full anger of the people." Will a prophet suffer persecution from the Church, the saints, and godly people? "Don't care about public opinion. Don't care what godly people say or what the ungodly say: ...till they get a hold of the will of God and they run with it." "If you stir hell up, the devil will stir everything he can against you: you'll get misunderstood, misrepresented... if you're not mature enough, it will get you down. It's not the contradiction of sinners... It's the criticism of saints that gets you down." |
What success can come from suffering?
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed bed of the Church." Should we expect suffering? "We are fools for Christ's sake" - 1 Cor. 4:10 "Why do you expect to be accepted?" Can this suffering be described and specified? "They were most despised, discredited, disappointed, disillusioned men in the world." "Pentecost in the New Testament meant to be married to: Poverty, Persecution, Privation, Prisons, Pain." "People say, 'We want another Pentecost.' I don't believe them for a minute. Pentecost in the New Testament is tied in with persecution, poverty (and) prison!"
"The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity." |
A Prophecy by Paul Washer
A Prophecy by A.W. Tozer
“Let me go out on a limb
a little bit and prophesy. I see the time coming when all the holy men whose
eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit will desert worldly Evangelicalism,
one by one. The house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God,
a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, left among them… I hear Jesus saying… Mat
23:37-38: 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one killing the prophets and stoning
those who are sent to her, how often would I have gathered your children
together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! Behold,
your house is left to you desolate'
As the Church now stands, the man who sees this condition of worldly evangelicalism is written off as somewhat fanatical. But the day is coming when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God among them. I would like to live long enough to watch this develop and see how things turn out. I would like to live to see the time when the men and woman of God – holy, separated and spiritually enlightened – walk out of the evangelical church and form a group of their own; when they get off the sinking ship and let her go down in the brackish and worldliness and form a new ark to ride out the storm.” – A.W. Tozer
As the Church now stands, the man who sees this condition of worldly evangelicalism is written off as somewhat fanatical. But the day is coming when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God among them. I would like to live long enough to watch this develop and see how things turn out. I would like to live to see the time when the men and woman of God – holy, separated and spiritually enlightened – walk out of the evangelical church and form a group of their own; when they get off the sinking ship and let her go down in the brackish and worldliness and form a new ark to ride out the storm.” – A.W. Tozer
"The Coming Revival"
by Leonard Ravenhill
by Leonard Ravenhill
#1) He's going to anoint your sons and your daughters, not your bishops sir... No, I'm sorry bishops.
#2) He's going to show us the Church anointed again in the Spirit of the Living God!
#3) When the Church is healthy... hell trembles.
#4) They must be young people.... working class people. Not the elite.
#5) (They will be people like): Fishermen of Galilee, A Tax Collector
#6) We're going to see men in our generation that have never been on the earth.
#7) God's going to raise some super holy men... people aren't ready.
#8) Folk don't want my message anyhow.
#9) There's going to come another "Upper Room". You young men are my hope.
#10) God wants some people crazier than I am.
#11) There's not a flood of revival in America today. God is bypassing us, provoking us...
#12) The Church has become so carnal... the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!
#13) God's going to bypass organized religion and systems before very long... I believe that many denominations are breathing their last right now.
#14) I am convinced that God's going to do a new work...
The Holy Ghost may not come back to you... [Matt. 13:12]. Some of you preachers are preaching a theology and your shouting behind a denomination, and you're scared stiff to preach the revelations God has given you...
#2) He's going to show us the Church anointed again in the Spirit of the Living God!
#3) When the Church is healthy... hell trembles.
#4) They must be young people.... working class people. Not the elite.
#5) (They will be people like): Fishermen of Galilee, A Tax Collector
#6) We're going to see men in our generation that have never been on the earth.
#7) God's going to raise some super holy men... people aren't ready.
#8) Folk don't want my message anyhow.
#9) There's going to come another "Upper Room". You young men are my hope.
#10) God wants some people crazier than I am.
#11) There's not a flood of revival in America today. God is bypassing us, provoking us...
#12) The Church has become so carnal... the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!
#13) God's going to bypass organized religion and systems before very long... I believe that many denominations are breathing their last right now.
#14) I am convinced that God's going to do a new work...
The Holy Ghost may not come back to you... [Matt. 13:12]. Some of you preachers are preaching a theology and your shouting behind a denomination, and you're scared stiff to preach the revelations God has given you...
Defamation and Persecution From the Regenerate
By Sean Morris
By Sean Morris
A Sermon by Jake Gardner
A Warning by A.W. Tozer
A Sermon by Sean Morris
Songs of Zion
So Send I You
By Daniel Pursley and Holly Pearce
By Daniel Pursley and Holly Pearce
So send I you to labour unrewarded
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown
To bear rebuke, ot suffer scorn and scoffing
So send I you to toil for Me alone
So send I you to bind the bruised and broken
Over wandering souls to work, to weep, to wake
To bear the burdens of a world a-weary
So send I you to suffer for My sake
So send I you to loneliness and longing
With hart a-hungering for the loved and known
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one
So send I you to know My love alone
So send I you to leave your life's ambition
To die to dear desire, self-will resign
To labour long, and love where men revile you
So send I you to lose you life in Mine
So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred
To eyes made blind because they will not see
To spend, though it be blood to spend and spare not
So send I you to taste of Calvary
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown
To bear rebuke, ot suffer scorn and scoffing
So send I you to toil for Me alone
So send I you to bind the bruised and broken
Over wandering souls to work, to weep, to wake
To bear the burdens of a world a-weary
So send I you to suffer for My sake
So send I you to loneliness and longing
With hart a-hungering for the loved and known
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one
So send I you to know My love alone
So send I you to leave your life's ambition
To die to dear desire, self-will resign
To labour long, and love where men revile you
So send I you to lose you life in Mine
So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred
To eyes made blind because they will not see
To spend, though it be blood to spend and spare not
So send I you to taste of Calvary
See also:
Pastures of Tender Grass - Hannah Gardner
We are Going to the Scaffold - Daniel Pursley, written by Cory McLaughlin
Pastures of Tender Grass - Hannah Gardner
We are Going to the Scaffold - Daniel Pursley, written by Cory McLaughlin